RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Similarity in resting-state functional brain connectivity is not influenced by social closeness in schoolchildren
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 788208
DO 10.1101/788208
A1 Carolyn Beth McNabb
A1 Laura Grace Burgess
A1 Amy Fancourt
A1 Nancy Mulligan
A1 Lily FitzGibbon
A1 Patricia Riddell
A1 Kou Murayama
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/09/30/788208.abstract
AB Previous research suggests that the proximity of individuals in a social network predicts how similarly their brains respond to naturalistic stimuli. However, the relationship between social connectedness and brain connectivity in the absence of external stimuli has not been examined. To investigate whether neural homophily between friends exists at rest we collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 68 school-aged girls, along with social network information from all pupils in their year groups (total 5066 social dyads). Participants were asked to rate the amount of time they voluntarily spent with each person in their year group, and directed social network matrices and community structure were then determined from these data. No statistically significant relationships between social distance, community homogeneity and similarity of global-level resting-state connectivity were observed. Nor were we able to predict social distance using a machine learning technique (i.e. elastic net regression based on the local-level similarities in resting-state whole-brain connectivity between participants). Although neural homophily between friends exists when viewing naturalistic stimuli, this finding did not extend to functional connectivity at rest in our population. Instead, resting-state connectivity may be less susceptible to the influences of a person’s social environment.Significance statement The tendency of individuals to befriend others like themselves is a well-known feature of human social networks. This phenomenon, known as homophily, has even been shown to extend to neural activation patterns during viewing of naturalistic stimuli. If neural homophily is also present during rest, this would indicate that humans select friends who not only share similar neural patterns during socially relevant tasks but also during unprompted thought. In the current study, we found insufficient evidence for homophily of neural connectivity during rest in schoolchildren, suggesting that internally-generated brain function contributes little to friend selection.